Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic, home to the national government. Founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus on the Ozama River and rebuilt early in the 1500s, its Colonial Zone is a UNESCO site featuring the first cathedral, fortress, and university in the Americas—making it a historic political and cultural hub. The other choices are major cities but not the capital: Santiago (second-largest, in the Cibao Valley), Puerto Plata (north-coast port and resort), and La Romana (industrial/tourist city). Memory tip: DOMINican and Santo DOMINGo share the “Domin-” root; in Spanish, domingo means Sunday—think of the Dominican Republic’s “Sunday” city as its capital.